Month: December 2011

Apple had a really big year. So I thought I would go into everything Apple did in 2011. Well not everything but the big things. So let’s get started.

iPad 2

The iPad 2 has been an amazing hit for Apple, and it still is. First announced by Steve Jobs on March 2nd 2011 I didn’t think that it would be such a hit along with many. On release date on March 11th I saw it would be an instant hit. It has turned out everyone wants one. At a point more people wanted an iPad 2 than world piece. It is a great product and when the new one get’s released it will be even better. Good work Apple.

Lawsuits, Lawsuits, and more Lawsuits,

This is a thing I don’t really want to mention but I feel like I have to. This year Apple went a little patent lawsuit crazy. Going after samsung copying the iPad 2. Android Manufactures so many I can’t list them but a quick google search should be able to find you this information. Apple has won over HTC in the US banning some phones from resale. Most older handsets not even for sale anymore. We will have to see how the rest of this plays out.

Lion

Mac OS X lion. Loved by some hated by others. Lion first made it’s way on to ALL of our systems July 20th a near 5 months ago. The software was the first Mac OS to be offered as a download only. It brought features from iOS including Full Screen apps, Resume, auto-save, and most importantly to some the mac app store. The Mac App Store has ton’s of apps. All of Apple’s Apps are also on the store. Lion has been the #1 most downloaded for 5 months and still is. Good work Apple. Personally I love lion and it’s features. Watch my in depth video of Lion here.

iOS 5

iOS 5. The best mobile os update Apple has ever made. Brining iCloud to the world. Great style notifications. iMessage. All of these improving on the already great operating system we have for our iOS devices. It is great and with iOS 5 5.1 beta we will have to see what new things come in the OS when the new iPad hardware is released. Read my iOS 5 review here.

New Management

Steve Jobs after the iPhone announcement announced he could no longer be CEO of Apple as he just didn’t feel like he could do well enough of a job. Placed as the chairman of the board Tim Cook replaced him and is the Current CEO.

iPhone 4s

The iPhone 4s set new records for sales. Breaking the records of weekend sales selling 4 million units in the opening weekend shattering the iPhone 4’s 2 million sales. the iPhone 4s is doing wonders for Apple. With the new A5 processor and Siri. Read my iPhone 4s review here.

Siri

This deserves it’s own spot as it is the biggest reason if not the only reason the iPhone 4s is selling the way it is. Siri Apple’s iPhone voice intelligent system is great and is the base of most of the iPhone ads they are airing today. It is incredible and I want to see it make it’s way to the iPad 3 that should be announced in the next few months. Read my iPhone 4s review including Siri here.

Goodbye Steve…

This year we said goodbye to the man who made Apple run. From the Apple I all the way to the iPhone 5 (ill touch on this next) Steve was the heart of Apple. His legacy still lives in his products as we can see his visions in iOS and all the Apple products we use every day. From the Mac to the iPhone. Thank you Steve… For everything.

iPhone 5

The rumor of the iPhone 5 has been going on for a while now and is still to this day. This was supposed to be the iPhone to be released and not the iPhone 4s. It was said that the iPhone 5 was one of the final projects Steve had worked on. Scrapped at the last minute we didn’t see the mystical device and we are hoping to see it this year. The iPhone was said to have a 4 inch screen, LTE 4G, and a new form factor. The phone is said to have been scrapped due to supply shortages or a hardware problem. Read all the iPhone rumors by clicking here!

So you got a new iPhone or iPod for the holidays! Great! By now you should have had time to play around with it and you want to know what you should do next! Well here is what you should do in terms of apps,music,photos and more. So let’s get started.

Apps

Here are some of the Apps you should get for your iPhone or iPod Touch.

1. Facebook –

The king of the social networks. As horrible as this app is to some people I don’t find it that bad. Sometimes it will annoy me though. It is better than using the mobile site as you can’t upload all your holiday photos using the web page. [iTunes Link]

2. Twitter –

Twitter is built into iOS 5. You can tweet out website links and photos from inside our native safari or photos app on the device. To do all of this though you need to get the official twitter app. It is a little hurtful on the eyes but the app itself is good and hey it’s free! [iTunes Link]

3. Tiny Wings –

This is one of my favorite iOS games of all times. Tiny wings. You are a bird who has always dreamed of flying. Unfortunately you have tiny wings. Good thing is the world is full of hills. You try and make it through islands by getting air of the hills. It is extremely addicting and I love it and I hope you will to. [$1 – iTunes Link]

Music

One of the great thing about having an iPhone and an iPod is you have music wherever you go. If you don’t have any though then well you are going to be missing out. One of the things every iPhone and iPod can do is download music,tv,and movies straight from the iTunes store along with previous purchases of TV and music. All you need to do is launch the iTunes store, go into the purchases, music, then hit the download all. This will take a while and unless you have iTunes match your mp3’s will NOT download. So to save time you might just want to plug your iPhone/iPod into iTunes and then have all your music.

Photos

The iPhone and the iPod are great way’s to show off your photos. All you need to do is hit the Photo tab when you connect your iDevice to iTunes and check the “Sync Photo’s” checkbox and you are done! Congrats!

iCloud

iCloud iOS 5’s biggest possibly best feature. It is amazing. It alows you to keep Photo’s, Calanders, Contacts, and more synced accross all your devices. Mac or PC. All you need to do is have an Apple ID. Once you do then you can navigate to Settings>iCloud. If you are not signed in go ahead and then select the services you want! Photo Stream stores 30 days or 1,000 new photos. You can clear ALL of them from iCloud.com and soon individually with iOS 5.1.

Play Around!

There are many great amazing things that the iPhone and the iPod touch have to offer and this is just a quick little guide to get you started. I will be posting some fun tips and tricks for all you new iPhone users and some good ones for older iPhone users. If you have a tip or a trick feel free to comment or send me a message on twitter (@matthewjagiela). Enjoy your night and I hope all of you had a wonderful day.

Every year sense we saw the iPad there has been crazy rumors of Apple making a 7 inch iPad so much Steve himself said the company would never make one! There is still rumors of them happening and here is the newest one: A 7inch iPad 3. Yes. Just like the 7 inch iPad 2 there is now a 7 inch iPad 3 rumor. There has never been a reason for Apple to even consider making an iPad that is 7 inches… Until now. The kindle fire Amazons “best selling product ever launched” is the 7 inches and has some steam going because it is allowed to be sold for such a low price because it’s smaller. So this is one reason they could be going for it. A very low budget iPad for people who just need something that small. We have herd of Apple ordering 7 inch iPad screens. However I don’t think we will see this. At least this year. I think this year they are going to test it. To see if they actually wanna put it out there. Above and right below is the 7 inch iPad 2 render vs the iPad 2 10 inch image.

The iPhone 4s has never had an untethered jailbreak. In fact there hasn’t really been any jailbreak for the iPhone 4s since we have first seen it about 2 months ago. Now there is going to be not only an iPhone 4s jailbreak but it will also be untethered. Even though they have cracked the problem for the A5 we won’t likely see this anytime soon so don’t get your hopes up. Most likely after Christmas. pod2G has cracked it and here is the official statement:

OK, figured it out, the A5 cache is not a problem anymore. I sorted it out by doing the untether in a single thread and by flushing all the dcache then all the icache in a row at a strategical point of the process. It took me like a hundred of tests to find the key. Hard for the nerves. For the tech guys, here is a link explaining issues related to self modifying code ( or code patching ) on the ARM platform : http://blogs.arm.com/software-enablement/141-caches-and-self-modifying-code/

Another news : I discussed with @saurik today about the launchd boot process, and he’s found one missing piece of the puzzle I needed to have a perfectly stable jailbreak. He’s definitly one of the best iOS gurus out there. Thank you saurik!

The Wall Street Joutnal has published a report detailing what they know on Apple’s supposed Television set. The report says Apple has met with media companies in recent weeks and here is what Apple is supposedly working on for the TV set:

The Apple television set is said to be very reliant on the cloud, something we’ve heard before, in order to download (and likely stream) television shows, movies, and other content. There does not seem to be a large differentiating factor here from the $99 Apple TV set-top-box, but this content component is just the surface of the TV set.

Apple is looking at new forms of interaction with not only TV sets but with mobile devices like iPhones and iPads. These new ways of interacting with technology include voice and movements. The voice aspect (Siri) is something we’ve heard in reports before and movement is something that Apple has been prototyping for a while now. The Siri component would be used to change channels and search for content.

Apple is also said to be working on an enhanced version of AirPlay that allows a user to start watching video content on a television, for example, and pickup the video on their mobile device. This would be the opposite of the current AirPlay solution where someone starts watching content on their iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, and continues via streaming to their Apple TV box. The WSJ says this may simply be an Apple TV box feature, not exclusive to the set.

The report also says late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs has been an advocate for controlling the Apple TV box with iOS devices (via the App Store Remote application), so we’ll likely see the Apple TV set being controlled with iPhones, iPads, and iPod touches versus a standalone remote control.

Obviously, this Apple TV set would eliminate the need for the Apple TV set-top-box, and would allow users to stream content directly from the iOS device to the Apple TV set. Companies like Time Warner Cable have not been a fan of Apple’s current go through the set-top-box for streaming solution, according to the report.

Finally, the report says Apple is working on an iCloud-based DVR service, purportedly for this Apple television set.

The WSJ has been a very good source in the past so this is probably accurate. We won’t know for sure until we see the TV if we ever do. It is rumored to launch around 2013.

Apple seems to be getting into the holiday spirit by releasing a new iPhone TV Ad. The Ad features Santa clause using his 4s and Siri to help him out through his big night. Check it out!

Also if you go to google on your computer and type in “let it snow” without “” then you get a surprise. Plus I will be decorating the site in the next few days for the holidays along with some good holiday apps!